Stock Media is a term used to convey graphics supplied by creators available to be licensed for a variety of uses. Types of stock can include photography, illustration, audio, video, code, fonts, or other media type — as well as advanced creations that combine multi-layered media.

There are many forms of licensing for stock with the most popular being royalty-free (pay once with attribution optional), creative commons commercial (free with attribution required), and free for commercial use (free without attribution required).

The cost can range from free to thousands of dollars for licensing depending on usage. Usage rights can be as simple as personal work (birthday card) to commercial broadcasting (radio and television).

It is important to only use resources that you have licensing for. Creators are protected by law and are able to pursue those individuals and companies illegally using their work.

If you do use free work, consider donating a few dollars from time to time to those photographers you patron through online stock photo sharing sites. Someone did create that artwork and was generous enough to share it at no cost to you even though you may directly or indirectly earn a return on it depending on your usage.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you take an image from the internet (example: Google Images Search, Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, someone’s website, etc.) and use it without permission — whether personally or commercially — it is considered theft.

Below is a small collection of stock sites to explore.